The cost quoted on just pads isn't horrible - go ahead and let them do the work. I just did 4 rotors and pads myself on an Infiniti and the job took 4 hours including going to the store for brake cleaner and test drive afterward. Disc brakes are really easy to replace. Total cost was under $600.00 a...

No suggestions from me - but after you get decent experience riding you will become a better car driver. Car drivers are mostly idiots and on a motorcycle you see and experience this more intensely and will eventually gain a second sense that lets you (usually) predict what a car driver will do befo...

Brad Garrett's Comedy Club at MGM. If you catch a night when Brad is there, it will be a treat. He does sort of a Rickles-lite improv routine between acts, acting as master of ceremonies. Really funny the way he interacts with the audience.

I definitely see the attraction of selling the vehicle and simplifying your life for the next 2 years. Devil's advocate: You have free storage. Change the oil, fill the tank and add Sta-Bil to the gas. Put car on cheap jack stands to keep the tires from getting a flat spot, plug in a trickle charger...

Not on the strip, but Binion's Ranch is like stepping back in time. Steak is very decent, service & price is good and it's like stepping back into 1964. Excellent views as it's the top floor of Binion's casino with booths up against the windows on all sides. Finding it is an adventure in itself - yo...

I picked up a low mileage (24,000 miles) 2012 Infiniti M37 last year for $23,000. Car is VERY comfortable on longer drives, roomy, quick and won't be mistaken for your dad's sedan. Highway mileage is decent for a larger car at 26 mpg. Look at used M37/Q70 - they are the same vehicle.

With no kids, you can use all that extra money to invest and have the means to pay people to be nice and take care of you in your old age. An aunt and uncle did that - hired live in help - great lady who lived with them for a number of years before they passed.

I'm not a tequila expert but I do like my shaken margarita on the rocks with salt. Tequila is one place you don't want to go cheap. Cheap rum or vodka - fine. But cheap tequila is just plain nasty in a bad way. Go with a reposado - a good compromise between white and anejo. I will not go cheaper tha...

I use assessed value. Around here that number is always lower than sale price for as long as I've been paying attention (last 25 years).
Home value is not figured into asset allocation or counted toward $$ needed to retire since we need to live somewhere.

Add another pro to the government job - apparently you don't wake up at night sweating & stressing about your job? At the end of the day you can truly leave it behind? The dudes making big bucks I guarantee are paying for it 24/7 with stress and distraction when they are at home. I fight it all the ...

Or you can live where property taxes are 2.3% of assessed value each year - AND have income tax on top of that. It's one big reason we aren't upgrading our living situation - the property taxes get stupid real quick.

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user230519/imageroot/2016/08/18/College%20Inflation_0.png Speaks for itself. In-state high-quality public university is where the value is. So, basically all the major costs associated with having children have skyrocketed. I'm more cynical. I se...

Dude, seriously rent a bigger place for a year. I work from home and my wife used to. I get it about the space thing. But job insecurity, a new baby and a major new debt do not mix. And you are trying to do it all real fast. You have no idea what you are in for over the next two years. At least. Don...

After reading this very interesting thread, and contemplating my own college experience, I am warming up to one idea that came up from a few posters. That is if parents can afford it, they pay for non-tuition costs, the student is responsible for tuition. If a kid has a good scholarship at a state ...

It's not so much temperature but wind that gets you. I'll go running as cold as zero degrees or a bit lower if there's not much wind. Finding a way to cover your face while you can still breathe easily is the key. Personally I think running in the morning is good for you - clears the crap out of you...

Real estate in Madison area can be outrageously priced. Old tear-down houses on tiny lots in my preferred neighborhood run close to $300,000. Location will have a huge influence on affordability. Be very careful regarding public schools. ALL of our friends with school-age children fled the Madison d...

The only correct way: Place head against, left window & adjust left mirror so you see the edge of the car as most people would sitting normally. Place head in center of the car and do the same with the passenger side mirror. Now mirrors are properly adjusted to eliminate the blind spot almost entire...

We give regularly - every 2 weeks. No mortgage (paid off - ha!)but local property and state income taxes that along with the deductible giving made it worth itemizing. I ran the numbers to see if the new tax law would make sense to "bunch" giving into odd years to make itemizing worth it under the n...

Stuff happens you can never anticipate - good stuff (opportunities) and bad stuff. My "emergency" fund is small - but half is kept in cash in a handy, secure place. Money in a local bank checking account ain't necessarily "immediately" available.

Tomorrow I'm selling my next-to-last individual stock holding. Looking back the 10 years I've held it I'm up 300% including dividends. Time to declare victory, sell and put the money into a 5 year CD to coincide with the time I may be stepping away from my career to do something less stressful and l...

I still have fond memories of the dyno-verified 500 horsepower Holly carb old school 383 stroker smallblock I put into my 1980 Camaro. I can still hear the lumpy cam idle that would put a modern factory skat pack challenger to shame.

Heh, ancestry. 3 of four of my grandparents I'm told were 100% German. On a 10 day trip to Munich this fall only once was it assumed by a native (before I spoke a word- I know zero German outside what I know from old Hogan's Heros reruns) that I was not German. This includes the stewardesses on the ...

Since you're staying at Four Seasons - Charlie Palmer steak house has had unadvertised/weekly specials that can be quite a bargain considering the quality of the place - be sure to ask the concierge or do some research.

I didn't "get it" until my mid 30's. #1 son grew up seeing my reformed financial self and was able to take a Dave Ramsey financial class or two in high school. He knows we don't spend nearly what we make; and we invest for our old age. When he was given a car at 16 it was with the expectation that h...